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Clemson\u2019s Dairy Product Evaluation team is milking their win by landing future job opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By Marie Hegler <\/b>and Johnny McGregor<\/b> Clemson has claimed yet another National Championship title. While most have heard of college football\u2019s Orange Bowl or basketball\u2019s March Madness, few have heard of and even fewer have competed in the Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest, where teams from across the nation compete in taste-testing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Former longtime head coach Johnny McGregor, who stepped down last year to make way for Cothran\u2019s innovative taste-testing philosophy, was thrilled upon hearing the results, exclaiming, \u201cWe did it! We finally did it! This team has been years in the making, even waiting out a pandemic, to compete.\u201d\u00a0Over the past 20 years, McGregor has led the team to over 15 top-three finishes. Yet, he has never quite been able to secure the top prize. ><\/span> To support the students, you can visit the \u201955 Exchange store on campus or place an order to have Clemson Ice Cream shipped to your front door.\u00a0For more information, visit\u00a0clemson.edu\/icecream<\/u><\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Marie Hegler and Johnny McGregor are faculty members in the Department of Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>
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\nPhotography by\u00a0University Photographers<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nWith the football team clinching the 2016 and 2018 national championships and the men\u2019s soccer team most recently capturing the 2021 National Championship, the torch has been passed to Clemson\u2019s Dairy Product Evaluation team. Five fearless, lactose-embracing Clemson students from the Department of Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences were able to taste and expectorate their way to victory on April 13 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they dominated the perennial powers of the University of Tennessee and South Dakota State.
\n\u201cOver the years we\u2019ve always come so close, just to be barely beaten out for first place,\u201d commented Coach Sara Cothran, former competitor and current FNPS faculty member. \u201cThis year was finally our year.\u201d
\nWhile most have heard of college football\u2019s Orange Bowl or basketball\u2019s March Madness, few have heard of and even fewer have competed in the Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest, where teams from across the nation compete in taste-testing. The goal is to correctly identify various attributes among samples within six different dairy product categories: milk, yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese and ice cream.
\nHave you ever tasted an \u201coxidized\u201d milk or a \u201clacks fine flavor\u201d ice cream? Have you ever seen a \u201cropey\u201d yogurt or a \u201cgassy\u201d cheese? The odds are that you most certainly have, but these minute details often go unnoticed to the untrained eye and palate. Yet for Clemson\u2019s Dairy Product Evaluation team, the difference between a \u201ccooked\u201d milk and a \u201cmalty\u201d milk means the difference between first and second place \u2014 and all the bragging rights that come with it.
\nWhile college teams and individual winners are named for each of the dairy product categories, the most prestigious award goes to the team and individual who win the All Products honors, which is the accumulation of scores across all dairy product categories. The Clemson team took home the much-sought-after All Products award as well as first place in Yogurt. They also received second place in both Cottage Cheese and Milk in addition to third place in Butter.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\n\u201cI knew the team would be in good hands with Cothran as their coach,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s trained with me for years, developing a keen sense of what really hones and intensifies the palates of our students.\u201d According to Cothran, countless hours of tasting and analyzing dairy products in the grueling morning hours is what separates these national champs from the rest of the competition.
\n\u201cNothing hits quite like a \u2018high salt\u2019 cottage cheese at 9 o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d said Clemson\u2019s Frances Schueren, the individual All Products winner and Milk Judging Champion of the competition. Schueren, originally from Pennsylvania, was heavily recruited by both Clemson and Penn State, whose acclaimed Peachy Paterno ice cream ranks second behind Clemson\u2019s world-famous ice cream, according to the latest rankings from College Magazine<\/em>.
\nWhen asked about the team\u2019s greatest strengths, Cothran said, \u201cWe\u2019ve always been strongest in ice cream since most of the team works at the \u201955 Exchange.\u201d
\nIn addition to coaching and teaching, Cothran also serves as the faculty adviser for the \u201955 Exchange, a student-run business enterprise that designs, manufactures, sells and serves Clemson\u2019s world-famous ice cream, shakes, coffee chillers, cold brew coffee,\u00a0smoothies and other Clemson products, like blue cheese\u00a0and T-shirts. The \u201955 Exchange helps fund the team\u2019s travel and training expenses.
\nWhat does this all mean for the future of these elite tasters? Katie Hannahs, whose consistency across all products helped solidify the big win, is the production manager for the \u201955 Exchange and will take her senior leadership skills with her to Kansas, where she has been drafted by the Schwan\u2019s Company in the frozen pizza division. Reese Kauffman spent last fall interning with the Campbell Soup Company under the mentorship of two Clemson alumni, Katie Worley and Judith Trevino\u00a0Isenberg, a nationally ranked taster during her time at Clemson. Kauffman will be finishing up his final semester at Clemson this fall while negotiating offers from major food companies. Reagan Ross, who anchored the team\u2019s effort and is the director of quality for the \u201955 Exchange, will be entering graduate school to work on a master\u2019s degree in food anthropology.\u00a0Team captain Frances Schueren, who spent a summer biking across the country to raise money for affordable housing grants through a nonprofit organization called Bike & Build, has been recruited by the nonprofit Mill Village Ministries in Greenville, South Carolina.
\nRedshirt alternate Ian Smith, a rising senior from Chicago, is expected to lead next year\u2019s team. Clemson may need to look at securing some top NIL deals in an effort to keep him from entering the transfer portal. While they\u2019re at it, they may also want to look at drafting a 10-year contract with a signing bonus for Coach Cothran. The future has never tasted so good for Clemson University\u2019s Department of Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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